Friday, March 25, 2011

My WR450F is dead, Here is what I have tried.

I am sorry to say that the winter storage of my WR450F this year lead to it being hard to start the first time I fired it up. It kicked right over and ran for a minute, sputtering and coughing. I took off down the road and around the corner, I was able to make it back to my driveway and it stopped. It hasn't started since. I am able to run it for a few seconds by spraying starter fluid in the air box. This means the bike is starving for gas. I took the bottom the the carburetor off and a few of the jets. I could not find a clog. What I think the issue is a plugged up something in the carburetor. I think I need to do a carburetor clean and rebuild. I think the passage way through the top of the carburetor into the lower bowl that is controlled by the float is plugged. I tested this by opening the drain valve and the gas tank petcock and gas did not flow all over the place. I think I will do a full carburetor removal and cleaning. I am also going to toss the old gas and clean out the filter in the bottom of the gas tank. I did test the flow of gas from the tank into the carburetor and this was OK, but this little bit of maintenance sounds like a good idea. I will keep you posted on my results once I get a chance to work on it.